Balanta language

Balanta (or Balant) is a group of two closely related Bak languages of West Africa spoken by the Balanta people.

Balanta
Native to	(Balanta-Kentohe) Guinea-Bissau, (Balanta-Ganja) the Gambia, Senegal
Ethnicity	Balanta people
Native speakers	510,000 (2006)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Bak–Bijago Bak proper Balanta
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Senegal
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: ble – Balanta-Kentohe bjt – Balanta-Ganja
Glottolog	bala1300[2]

Description

Balanta is now generally divided into two distinct languages; Balanta-Kentohe and Balanta-Ganja.[3][4]

Balanta-Kentohe

The Balanta-Kentohe language is spoken by a total of 423,000 people on the north central and central coast of Guinea-Bissau (where as of 2006 it is spoken by 397,000 people, many of which can be found in the Oio Region[5]) as well as in the Gambia. Films and portions of the Bible have been produced in Balanta-Kentohe.

Ethnologue lists alternative names as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balanta, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Frase, Fora, Kantohe (Kentohe, Queuthoe), Naga and Mane. The Naga, Mane and Kantohe dialects may be separate languages.

Balanta-Ganja

Balanta-Ganja is spoken by 86,000 people (as of 2006) in the southwest corner of and the south of Senegal. Literacy is less than 1% for Balanta-Ganja.[3][4] In September 2000, Balanta-Ganja was granted the status of a national language in Senegal, and as of then can now be taught in elementary school.

Ethnologue lists alternative names as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Fjaa, Fraase; dialects are Fganja (Ganja) and Fjaalib (Blip).

Grammar

Balanta has case prefixes and suffixes alternatively interpreted as a definite article dependent on the noun class.

Phonology

The following are the phonemes of the Balanta dialects[6][7]

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless			t	c	k	kp
	voiced	b		d	ɟ	ɡ	ɡb
	prenasal vl.			ⁿt	ᶮc	ᵑk	ᵑkp
	prenasal vd.	ᵐb		ⁿd	ᶮɟ	ᵑɡ	ᵑɡb
Fricative	voiceless	f	θ	s				h
	prenasal	ᶬf	ⁿθ	ⁿs
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic				r
Lateral				l
Approximant					j		w

Voiceless sounds [c k kp] are only heard in the Guinea Bissau dialect.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
	ɪ ɪː		ʊ ʊː
Mid	e eː	ə	o oː
	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː
Low		a aː

Writing

In Senegal, Decree No. 2005-979 regulates the orthography of Balanta as follows:[8][9]

Letters of the alphabet (Senegal)
A	B	Ɓ	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	L	M	N	Ñ	Ŋ	O	R	S	T	Ŧ	U	W	Y
a	b	ɓ	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	l	m	n	ñ	ŋ	o	r	s	t	ŧ	u	w	y

References

1. Balanta-Kentohe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Balanta-Ganja at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Balanta". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. "Ethnologue Entry for Balanta-Kentohe". Ethnologue.
4. "Ethnologue Entry for Balanta-Ganja". Ethnologue.
5. "Balanta-Kentohe at the Rosetta Project". The Rosetta Project.
6. Creissels, Denis; Biaye, Séckou (2016). Le balant ganja.
7. Mbodj, Chérif (2011). Description synchronique du Balante So:fa (Guinée-Bissau).
8. "O sistema verbal do Balanta : Um estudo dos morfemas de tempo". Universidade de São Paulo.
9. Gouvernement du Sénégal, Décret n° 2005-979.

Relevant literature

• Creissels, Denis. 2016. A sketch of Ganja (Balant). In Friederike Lüpke (ed.), The Oxford guide to the Atlantic languages of West Africa. Oxford University Press.
• Mansaly, Jules. 2018. Dictionnaire des proverbes balant: Une langue du groupe atlantique-ouest de la famille niger-congo au Sénégal. (Series: Verbal Art and Documentary Literature in African Languages Volume 37.) Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
• Migeod, F.W.H., The Languages of West Africa Volume II London 1913.
• Westermann, D. & Bryan, M.A. The Languages of West Africa. Published for the International African Institute by Dawsons of Pall Mall, Folkestone & London 1970.

External links

• Video about the Balanta language
• Swadesh List for Balanta-Kentohe